Reviews list for In the Woods... - Cease the Day (2018)

'The New ITW' hit their stride with sharpened songwriting

In the Woods...'s 2016 "comeback" album, Pure, featured an almost entirely new band, with drummer Anders Kobro the only returning member from the Omnio era. If you're going to resuscitate the ITW name - dormant for 15 years but still gold-tinged in the extreme and prog metal undergrounds - the new material had better justify it. Did it? Well, kind of. Pure was generally well-received, but for me, it mostly just blurred together and left me feeling lukewarm, with only a couple standout songs.

While Cease the Day continues the introspective yet grandiose prog-doom sound that Pure established, it takes a major step forward in the songwriting department and re-introduces the Black Metal element - not heard in this quantity since HEart of the Ages. That first scream in "Empty Streets" might just take you back to their self-titled song! In The Woods... have never ever repeated themselves, for better or worse, so it pleases me to see progression from the new incarnation of the band as well.

Anyways, Cease the Day succeeds where Pure struggled in creating a memorable full-album experience from front to back.

And I mean "front to back" literally, since the shining example of this mindful songcraft is a recurring lullaby melody that bookends the album on a unifying somber note. This haunting, softly-sung lullaby sets the somber stage for "Empty Streets" and is reprised brilliantly for the wistful closer "Cease The Day", the lyrics masterfully switching as the melody is recalled. It's a musical moment that hit me hard on my first listen - the type of impact moments that I loved about 90s ITW. I could already imagine myself reflecting on the lyrics while stargazing in the mountains or walking the empty city streets on the album cover.

Between these poetic bookends is plenty of memorable stuff as well. After only one or two listens, each song on this album had already taken on its own distinct identity in my head, rather than running together as a big blob that, yes, sounds good, but loses impact as a full experience or individual replay value. Whether it's the return of harsh vocals, James Fogarty bringing better vocal melodies, or just simpler, more refined songs... In The Woods must be commended for largely eliminating this tonal "saminess" problem that has sometimes plagued them - even on my favorite release of theirs, Omnio.

With the soft/clean to harsh/piercing dynamics of "Empty Streets", the pointed darkness of "Substance Vortex", the Woods of Ypres-esque melancholic anthem "Respect My Solitude", the doomy harmonies of "Cloud Seeder", the fist-raising catharsis of "Strike Up With the Dawn" and climactic barnstormer "Transcending Yesterdays", this is some of the most song-to-song diversity I've heard on an ITW album. A few of the songs fall short of true greatness ("Still Yearning" sticks out as the weakest to my ears), but at least they're all memorable. It's not a long album, and every song feels vital and few moments are wasted.

While the band are not really innovating or making one-of-a-kind music anymore, Cease the Day holds up better to the vaunted ITW back-catalogue than most skeptics (myself included) would have expected and proves that "the new ITW" can still be highly relevant and one of the leaders in their corner of the metal world. Recommended to fans of any previous In the Woods... album - even those who did not particularly love Pure - as well as those who know they typically enjoy this very Scandinavian fusion of the dark, melancholic and avant-garde.

Favorite songs: Empty Streets/Cease The Day reprise, Cloud Seeder, Strike Up With The Dawn, Transcending Yesterdays